Respect for India increased over last 5 yrs: PM Modi

After a rousing welcome by BJP workers on his arrival back home from the US tour, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that he noticed a “big change” in the respect and enthusiasm for India at the world fora in the past five years since his government came to power.

"After assuming office in 2014, I went to the United Nations. I went to the United Nations even now. In these five years, I have seen a big change. The respect for India, the enthusiasm towards India has increased significantly,” Modi said giving the credit to 130 crore Indians for the stupendous success of the “Howdy Modi” event.

Celebrations broke out at the event organized by the party at the Palam airport as Modi arrived. Flagging the diaspora event in Houston that saw the attendance of US President Donald Trump and both the Republicans and the Democrats, the prime minister gave the message of national pride and also mentioned the surgical strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Recalling that three years ago on this day, he did not sleep all night waiting for his phone to ring, Modi said, “that day marked the victory of India's brave soldiers who did surgical strike and made the country proud.”

Hailing the speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Home Minister and BJP chief Amit Shah separately said that Modi spoke like a “true statesman”, while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the prime minister's speech was a manifestation of India's imprint and intent at the global stage on fighting terror.